Sri Lanka’s tourist ETA is free for Indian passport holders, and it is still required: the Department of Immigration and Emigration states that all foreign nationals, including nationals of the 40 countries that receive it free of charge, must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization prior to arrival in Sri Lanka (Department of Immigration and Emigration, accessed 2026-08-27).
Free and required are both true at the same time, and confusing the two is the single most expensive mistake on this trip.
This guide is maintained by Zurich Kotak General Insurance, an IRDAI-registered general insurer in India and part of the Zurich Insurance Group.
How Zurich Kotak fits in: The ETA is free and compulsory and cover is neither, which makes it the one pre-departure decision genuinely yours to make: Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover emergency medical treatment abroad, medical evacuation and repatriation, baggage loss or delay and trip cancellation for specified reasons, up to the limits of the plan you buy. Sri Lanka sits in the Asia geography, which runs two tiers, Excel with sum insured up to USD 100,000 and Prime up to USD 500,000, and standard plans take entry up to age 70. The policy is bought per trip and issued online once your dates are fixed.
Last verified: 2026-08-27.
Free does not mean not needed
A great deal of what circulates about Sri Lanka says the country is now “visa-free” or “ETA-free” for Indians. It is not, and the Department says so in its own words.
From the current notice on the official ETA portal, verbatim:
Please note that all foreign nationals, including nationals of the above-mentioned 40 countries and nationals with bilateral reciprocal agreements (i.e. Maldives, Seychelles, and Singapore), are required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) prior to arrival in Sri Lanka.
Source: eta.gov.lk , accessed 2026-08-27.
What changed on 2026-05-25 is the price, not the requirement. The tourist ETA became free of charge for nationals of 40 countries. Nobody removed the obligation to hold one before boarding.
What the free ETA gives an Indian traveller
Thirty days, double entry, at no cost, for a tourist visit.
Property | Position |
Fee for Indian passport holders | Free, with effect from 2026-05-25 |
Validity of stay | 30 days |
Entries permitted | Double entry, from the date of first arrival, within the 30-day validity |
Passport types covered | Diplomatic, Official, Service and Ordinary |
Extensions beyond 30 days | Available on payment of the applicable visa fee |
Fees paid before 2026-05-25 | Non-refundable |
Scheme end date | None published |
Official portal | https://www.eta.gov.lk/ , which redirects to https://www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa/ |
The double entry is worth planning around. Two entries are permitted from the date of first arrival, inside the same 30-day validity, which matters to anyone pairing Sri Lanka with the Maldives or hopping back to India in the middle of a trip.
Extensions cost money. The Department’s wording is that a traveller who has obtained a free visa and wishes to stay beyond 30 days may apply for an extension “upon payment of the applicable visa fee”. We do not publish an extension ceiling here, because the Department’s current notice does not state one.
The 40 countries on the free list
Forty nationalities obtain the tourist ETA free of charge under the scheme that took effect on 2026-05-25, and India is one of them.
Region | Countries on the free list |
South Asia | India, Nepal, Pakistan |
East and Southeast Asia | China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand |
Middle East and West Asia | Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE |
Europe | Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
Central Asia | Kazakhstan |
Americas | Canada, United States of America |
Oceania | Australia, New Zealand |
Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore are handled separately, under bilateral reciprocal agreements, and are also processed free of charge. Maldivian nationals receive 90 days rather than 30. Every one of those nationalities still has to obtain the ETA before arrival.
The official portal, and only the official portal
Apply at eta.gov.lk . It is the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s own service, and it redirects to eta.gov.lk/slvisa .
Type the address rather than following a search advert. Sri Lanka ETA results are crowded with services that charge to submit a form that is now free, and some of them use domain names built to look official. If a site asks for a payment to file a Sri Lanka tourist ETA, close it.
One live source of confusion sits on the official site itself. The ETA landing page still displays an older alert dated 2024.09.27, announcing a free-visa arrangement for a different and much smaller group of seven countries. It appears above the current notice, both mention India, and they have different scopes. The 2026-05-25 notice covering 40 countries is the operative one: it is later and more specific.
Sri Lanka does not have a digital arrival card
There is no Sri Lankan arrival card to file. The ETA is the authorisation, and there is nothing else to submit before you land.
This is worth stating because the region has moved the other way. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam each require a separate digital declaration in the days before arrival, none of which charges you on its official portal, on top of whatever visa applies. Sri Lanka does not: the ETA does the whole job. If you are travelling on to one of the others in the same trip, which countries require a digital arrival card sets out what each one wants and when it is due.
Sri Lanka is also not a visa-free destination for Indian passport holders, whatever the fee is. If you are choosing a destination on that basis, the visa-free countries for Indians list is the place to compare, and Sri Lanka is not on it.
How to apply
Apply before you leave India, not at the airport.
Have to hand:
1. The passport, valid, for the number, the exact name spelling and the expiry date.
2. Travel dates and the arrival details.
3. The address of the first night’s stay in Sri Lanka.
4. An email address you can open while travelling.
Then:
1. Go to https://www.eta.gov.lk/ , typing the address rather than following an advert, and let it redirect to the ETA service.
2. Choose the tourist ETA and enter the passport and personal details, matching the passport exactly.
3. Enter the travel details and the address of your stay.
4. Submit, and expect the approval to arrive by email.
5. Save the approval offline as well as in the inbox, and carry a printout.
Enter the name exactly as the passport prints it. A mismatch between the ETA and the passport is the avoidable version of a problem at the counter.
If you arrive without one
The Department’s Ports Branch does grant ETAs at ports to travellers who arrive without one, but that is a recovery path and not a plan.
The Ports Branch lists among its tasks “Granting ETA at the ports to the foreigners who arrive into Sri Lanka without obtaining ETA” (Department of Immigration and Emigration, Ports Branch, accessed 2026-08-27). So the facility exists, at Bandaranaike International and the other approved ports.
Two reasons not to rely on it. The Department’s own rule is that the ETA must be obtained prior to arrival, and we could not establish whether an ETA granted at a port is free for a national of one of the 40 countries, so treat the cost as unknown rather than as zero. Ten minutes online before you leave removes the question.
Common mistakes
Almost every problem an Indian traveller has with the Sri Lanka ETA starts with the same misreading: that a free authorisation is an optional one.
Mistake | What happens | The correction |
Reading “free” as “not needed” | Boarding or entry put at risk with nothing in hand | Free and required are both true; the Department says so in one sentence |
Believing Sri Lanka is visa-free for Indians | Same outcome, from a different starting point | It is not visa-free; the ETA is free |
Leaving it to the airport | An avoidable dependency on the Ports Branch | The rule is “prior to arrival” |
Missing the double entry | A second entry paid for or planned around unnecessarily | Two entries are permitted inside the 30-day validity |
Assuming 30 days can be stretched for free | An unexpected fee in Colombo | Extensions carry the applicable visa fee |
Paying an impersonating site | Money spent on a free service | Only eta.gov.lk , which redirects to eta.gov.lk/slvisa |
Expecting a refund of a fee paid before 2026-05-25 | Time spent on a claim that will not succeed | The Department states those fees are non-refundable |
Travel insurance for Sri Lanka
The ETA application does not ask for proof of travel insurance, and insurance is not a condition of entry. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
The reason it belongs on this page is timing. By the time you are filing an ETA, the flights and the hotel are booked and paid for, and cover is one of the few things still unbought. Sri Lanka is close and cheap to reach, which is exactly why the medical bill from a scooter accident or a hospital admission comes as a shock: it is paid by you unless a policy is in force.
Travelling to Sri Lanka? The ETA is free and takes minutes. Cover for the trip you have already paid for takes about as long. Get a travel insurance quote .
Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover Sri Lanka under the Asia geography, on the Excel tier with sum insured up to USD 100,000 and the Prime tier up to USD 500,000. The maximum entry age on the Asia geography is 70, and there is no Senior Citizen plan on it, so a traveller aged 71 or over needs a different route. Medical treatment, evacuation, baggage, trip cancellation and trip delay are covered up to plan limits.
Frequently asked questions
Do Indians need an ETA for Sri Lanka? Yes. The Department of Immigration and Emigration states that all foreign nationals, including nationals of the 40 countries that receive it free of charge, are required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization prior to arrival in Sri Lanka. India is one of those 40 countries.
Is the Sri Lanka ETA free for Indian passport holders? Yes. With effect from 2026-05-25, nationals of 40 countries including India obtain the tourist ETA free of charge for 30 days. Extensions beyond 30 days are charged at the applicable visa fee.
How long can Indians stay in Sri Lanka on the free ETA? Thirty days, with a double-entry facility permitted from the date of first arrival within that 30-day validity period.
Can I get the Sri Lanka ETA on arrival? The Ports Branch does grant ETAs at ports to travellers who arrive without one, but the Department’s own rule is that the ETA must be obtained prior to arrival. Treat the port route as a recovery path, not a plan.
Does Sri Lanka have a digital arrival card? No. Sri Lanka has no separate digital arrival card. The ETA is the authorisation, and there is no additional pre-arrival declaration of the kind Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore require.
Is travel insurance required for a Sri Lanka ETA? No. The ETA application does not require proof of travel insurance and insurance is not a condition of entry. It is still worth holding, because medical treatment abroad is paid by you unless a policy covers it.
